This week, I want to talk about one of my favorite dance techniques, that catches a lot of heat from the dance and drum community for many reasons. For one, it is very much African dance, though it is not traditional African dance. It has no known origins, except through hear say. It also, has been the foundation for many of the top African dancers on the scene for years. It is called, "Gang Gang" or "Interpretive African Dance" and African American artform that seemed to rise up out og the seventies as many of our ancestors were in full swing of trying to find peace and the way back to The Motherland in search of our roots.

Growing our afro's and wearing the dashiki's was only an inner desire to know thyself. What we discovered was that we weren't in Africa anymore. As African artists were allowed to come across seas and perform in this country we watched and we picked up what we could. There weren't many if any African dance classes, as there were Afro-Caribbean dance classes and drum classes, forget about it. Maybe Conga drum class, not djembe and/ or sangbah, kinkinney, djundjun.

So with The Movement upon us and with the little rhythms and steps we were picking up and beginning to retain as our DNA was reawakened, we began to teach Interpretive Dance in our dance schools and community centers to Olatunji tapes. Once drummers began to grasp and even create rhythms that could channel our ancestors of Africa and African America the dances were created.

Gang Gang.

I only heard the term used by Bernice Johnson alumni and those taught by them, so for me this is where it became a technique. Gang Gang was the dances created for this concrete jungle here in America. We do not work the field unless you're a farmer, we do not go into the bush for Rites of Passage, we don't dance and drum for the fishermen that catch the fish that's in our supermarkets, there for - TO ME - (gotta make that clear because people always seem to want to attack you for your opinion as if you said it's fact) we needed our own dances here that came from the ancestors brought here that lived, built, and died here. We needed our own song, our dance, our own rhythms.

Gang Gang.

Different to each person who has studied it, but basically it is what it is; the combination of Caribbean influences and traditional African dance. For me it is not just going wild, it is executing each step, with the fullest of energy, sharp, clean, and free. Hair is out and released during Gang Gang dance performances (BJ style, actually) derived from dancers competing to top each others energy, using the wildness of the hair swinging with the movements to help enhance the height of the energy being used. Techniques are not always sat down and scientifically written out and created. Sometimes, they come from people naturally as they evolve. Sometimes they are born from an environment or planetary vibe.

I teach Gang Gang often and my company performs it as one of our signature segments that includes Gumbe, Ibo, 6/8, 4/4, and Khaldun - all non-traditional dances with songs and purpose behind each movement. I use some of the dances to heal. Some of the rhythms not mentioned here, that I may choose to teach, are my own but are fused with my knowledge of traditional and Gang Gang techniques. Of course, if that's the case I call the class a Gang Gang class, never any surprises.

How can you tell the difference between a teacher who is teaching Gang Gang and one that just has no knowledge of either techniques and is doing anything and calling it Gang Gang? For one, look at their technique as a dancer period. Musicality, balance, style, and choreography/ combo's. You can always tell a professional dancer from a fraud as soon as they start to move. Gang Gang takes a sort of wild control that is hard to describe, when at the same time it also has a smoothness to it.

How do you feel about Gang Gang? Have you ever learned or studied it? With whom? Do you agree with innovations in traditional African dance technique? What did you learn about Gang Gang? Let's start a dialogue this week on it. Next week, I'll probably be bloggin about students and teachers...where's the respect?...and vice versa...who knows...

Stay blessed ya'll!

Amina